HDR Black & White Landscape

I wanted to try an HDR capture down in the spruce bog to see if I could get some contrast into the scene. I also wanted to see if I could convey the weird dread that place gives me. Here's the result:

Five exposures, +-2 stops
Aperture: 8-16
Shutter speed: 1/4-1/15 second
ISO 100
31mm lens (~47mm equivalent)

It's creepy, which is what I wanted, but the problem shooting in the forest is that you're so hemmed in, it's hard to get a shot that conveys how it feels. This was taken from a realistic perspective, but the low angle makes the trees look much larger than they are. The eeriness of the forest comes from the trees being stunted, which doesn't come across well here. I might try it again with a stepladder sometime.

I created this using HDR Pro in photoshop, though I still don't understand the HDR editing options very well. I just played with them until I got contrasty trees and flat light. The sky is a little overdramatic.